Conventionally, powder-phase contents are received in a compact container, and a user the powder-phase contents using a puff. However, when the user uses the powder-phase contents, the contents may be scattered in use. When the user applies the contents to the face, the adhesion of the contents to the face may be degraded. In order to solve the problem, foundation having the gel-phase contents has been developed, and the use frequency of the foundation has been gradually increased due to the convenience of use.
In general, the gel-phase contents are produced by mixing mutually different materials, and include emulsified cosmetic materials of water-in-oil (W/O) and oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion cosmetic materials obtained by mixing water-based material and oil-based material using an emulsifying agent including a surface active agent.
The water-in-oil emulsion cosmetic material has a larger quantity of oil than that of water and is oily so that the absorption of skin is slow. Although the touch feeling of the water-in-oil emulsion cosmetic material is heavy, the persistence is longer than that of the oil-in-water cosmetic material. The oil-in-water emulsion cosmetic material has a larger quantity of water than that of oil and is little oily so that the absorption of skin is fast. Although the touch feeling of the water-in-oil emulsion cosmetic material is flash and light, the persistence is low. Therefore, the cosmetics requiring persistence are produced by using the W/O emulsion cosmetic material to increase water resistance against sweat and water.
Although, the touch feeling of the W/O emulsion cosmetic material is heavy and sticky, the defects may be compensated by reducing the viscosity of content. However, when the water-in-oil product having low viscosity remains for a long time in circulation, the aqueous material of internal phase and the oil materials of external phase may be separated from each other. In this case, a user must shake a container to mix the separated aqueous and oil materials with each other for use, which causes the inconvenience of use.
In order to solve the problem, as shown in FIG. 1, there has been developed and suggested a product including an immersing member immersed with a W/O contents having low viscosity and contained in an airless pump container, which is disclosed in Korean Unexamined Patent No. 10-2013-0001688.
As shown in FIG. 1, an immersing member 2000 immersed with gel-phase foundation is contained in a container main body 1000. In order to use the gel-phase foundation immersed in the immersing member 2000, a user presses a pressing button 5000 so that vacuum pressure is generated in the container main body 1000 through the pumping operation of an airless pump 4000. A pushing plate 3000 placed at a lower portion of the container main body 1000 is moved up by the vacuum pressure. Accordingly, the immersing member 2000 immersed with the gel-phase foundation is squeezed and compressed up by the pushing plate 3000, so that the gel-phase foundation is discharged and used.
However, since the immersing member 2000 has a large volume, the pushing plate 3000 may not completely push up the immersing member 2000 only through the pumping operation of the airless pump 4000. Accordingly, the gel-phase foundation immersed in the immersing member 2000 is not used up, so that the contents may be wasted.
Accordingly, in order to prevent the gel-phase foundation from remaining, there has suggested a compact container having an airless pump which is disclosed in Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0461424 as shown in FIG. 2.
Since the compact container having the airless pump employs the airless pump 4000, the foundation can be prevented from remaining in the container main body 1000. However, since the airless pump of the conventional compact container must employ an operating piston 4200 and an enclosed piston 4300 due to the structure, a long working stroke is formed. Accordingly, when the airless pump is installed in a flat container such as a compact, the working stroke must be short. In this case, since a small amount of contents are discharged at once, the user must inconveniently pumping the airless pump several times, which complicates the structure of the airless pump 4000 and increases the production costs.
For reference, the structure of the airless pump will be described below. Regarding the structure of the airless pump, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, an open/close member 4120 to open/close a content introduction hole 4100, and the operating piston 4200 are installed to receive the elasticity of an elastic member 4400. A cylinder 4600, which is configured to discharge contents from a content storage chamber 4500 through a pressing button 5000 when pressure is applied into the content storage chamber 4500 by the operating piston 4200, is installed in a pump main body 4800.
The enclosed piston 4300 is additionally installed in the operating piston 4200, and the pressing button 5000 is installed in an operating tube 4700 coupled to the operating piston 4200 of the cylinder 4600.
According to the convention content discharge pump having the above configuration, if the pressing button 5000 is pressed, after the air gap is first formed between the enclosed piston 4300 and the operating piston 4200, the enclosed piston 4300 and the operating piston 4200 are moved down together, so that pressure is generated in the content storage chamber 4500. The contents of the operating piston 4200 are discharged through a content transfer path 4220 by the pressure.
In this case, the open/close member 4120 makes close contact with the content introduction hole 4100 due to the compressed elastic member 4400 to block the content introduction hole 4100.
If the pressure applied to the pressing button 5000 is released after discharging the contents by pressing the pressing button 5000 as described above, the operating piston 4200 and the enclosed piston 4300 are moved up together by rebound elasticity accumulated in an elastic member 4400 as shown in FIG. 4.
The operating piston 4200 and the enclosed piston 4300 moved up as described above are stopped since the enclosed piston 4300 makes friction with the inside of the cylinder 4600 in the initial moving-up stage. In this state, the operating piston 4200 is first moved up to close the air gap formed between the operating piston 4200 and the enclosed piston 4300 so that the content transfer path 4220 is blocked, and the elasticity accumulated in the elastic member 4400 is weakened.
In the state that the content transfer path 4220 is blocked as described above, as the operating piston 4200 and the sealing piston 4300 are continuously moved up by the elastic member 4400, the vacuum pressure is generated in the content storage chamber 4500. The open/close member 4120 is separated from the content Introduction hole 4100 by the vacuum pressure generated in the content storage chamber 4500, so that the contents in the container are introduced into the content storage chamber 4500.
The conventional content discharge pump continuously repeats the above operations to discharge the contents.
However, the structure of the conventional content discharge pump is very complicated, so that the productivity may be degraded, and the price of a product may be increased. In addition, since the discharge pump has a long stroke in terms of a structure, when the discharge pump is applied to a product, such as a compact, having a height lower than a width thereof, the mounting space for the discharge pump is narrow, so that the discharge pump may not be mounted. If the size of the conventional discharge pump is reduced in order to overcome the above problem, an amount of discharged contents is excessively reduced, so that the user must pump the discharge pump several times.
Further, according to the conventional foundation container having the airless pump, although the gel-phase foundation can be prevented from remaining, the foundation container has no function of properly mixing the gel-phase foundation divided into W/O and G/W materials. Accordingly, a consumer must inconveniently use the foundation by shaking the foundation container and mixing W/O and O/W materials, which are divided into each other.
Therefore, applicant of the present invention has suggested a foundation container including a discharge pump having a short stroke and a content diffusing member, which is disclosed in Korean Utility Model Application 20-2013-585S as shown in FIG. 5.
In the foundation container, an outer container cap 150 is hinged with an outer container body 100, an inner container body 300 coupled to an inner container cap 400 is mounted in the outer container body 100, an inner container interruption plate 350 is coupled to an inner upper portion of the inner container body 300, a discharge pump 600 is coupled to the center of the inner container interruption plate 350, a content diffusing member 700 is coupled to the upper portion of the discharge pump 600, and the discharge pump 600 is coupled to the inner container interruption plate 350.
The discharge pump 600 used in the foundation container includes a valve body 610, a valve late 640, a pressing button 650, a deformation-press member 660, and an elastic member 670 as shown in FIG. 6.
The valve body 610 includes a valve upper body 620 and a valve lower body 630. The valve upper body 620 is formed at an upper surface thereof with a mounting step 622, at an inner central portion thereof with a valve plate supporting step 624, which protrudes, and formed with a valve lower body coupling part 626 integrally extending downward. The valve lower body 630 is formed at the center thereof with a content discharge port 632. After the valve plate 640 is placed on the valve lower body 630, the valve lower body 630 is inserted into the valve lower body coupling part 626.
The pressing button 650 is coupled to an outer circumferential portion of the valve upper body 620 and formed at the center thereof with a discharge port 651 to discharge contents. A content open/close member 653 is coupled to an inner portion of the discharge port 651 by a rib 652.
The deformation-press member 660 is coupled to the inner portion of the pressing button 650. The deformation-press member 660 is formed at an outer circumferential portion thereof with a coupling step 664, which protrudes, to be mounted on the mounting step 622 of the valve upper body 620. The deformation-press member 660 is formed at the center thereof with a valve protruding ring. The deformation-press member 660 is mounted on the valve upper body 620 to form the internal space between the deformation-press member 660 and the valve body 610. The internal space serves as a temporary storage part TR where contents stay before being discharged through the discharge port 651 of the pressing button 650 after moving through the content discharge port 632 of the valve lower body 630 from the container. In addition, the elastic member 670 is placed on the coupling step 664 formed at the edge of the deformation-press member 660 to press the coupling step 664 of the deformation-press member 660 with respect to the mounting step of the valve upper body 620, so that airtightness is increased and the pressing button 650 is elastically supported.
However, according to the foundation container of the related art, the content discharge pump mounted in the foundation container has a significantly complex structure, and a large number of components are provided, so that the product price is increased. In addition, the components have small sizes and the assembling of the components is difficult, so that the production cost may be increased and product competitiveness may be degraded.